Recently I got some new shelves in my New York apartment, and am now able to find and display thing like all my issues of magazines. While moving things around, I discovered that I first became an MWANer with Issue #86 (March/April 1997), and started appearing in the magazine as an author four issues later in Issue #90 (November/December 1997), about six years ago. Since then I've never looked back. However, noting the passage of not only that period but also the more distant past, perhaps it is time. So here are some reflections on a life lived in our hobby. Following this is an index of my published MWAN articles and letters. Since I needed to do this anyway for myself, to avoid repetition and build on what has gone before, I thought the results might benefit four groups of people: (1) those interested in 54mm information, (2) those interested in my writing in general, (3) newer MWANers who would have to go back into the past issues for the first time, and (4) future hobby historians and my mother. So here, with grateful thanks to Ye Editor Hal, is a new article, looking back with astonishment at the different world I inhabited back then. The index includes my contributions to 27 issues, and I hope it will help those who wish to take a first or second look at any of these pieces to find and enjoy them. MILESTONES IN A WARGAMING CAREER INTRODUCTION: A MISSPENT YOUTH< Looking back over the years, I can review various experiences that molded me into the miniatures gamer I would become. Clearly I was destined for gaming greatness. When I was born, the entire world celebrated, and continued doing so every year on my birthday since - December 24, 1951 (aka Year One CE or "Charley Era"). As a child, I would set up our cardboard "Peter Piper's Pipertown" village - a venerable old toy from a precious generation - on a layer of cotton "snow" under the Charley Tree. This ritual might make more sense to you if you understand that we were Jewish. Or not. A column of whatever new toy soldiers I unwrapped in the morning would soon be marching through town, master of all it surveyed. During the rest of the year, battlefields would be made of white wood blocks, Lincoln Logs, model railroading trees, or later, Girder and Panel Building Sets. 1. QUALITY VS. QUANTITY While a boy growing up in the Sixties, 54mm plastic was the way to go with any toy soldiers, be they WWII or ACW. Other periods appeared too sporadically to allow for big battles, although skirmishes were possible with African natives, pirates, knights, cowboys and Indians, spacemen and others. I played outside in the dirt or beach sand with cheap plastic figures, but safely paraded my small collection of William Britain's figures (which, mostly red-coated guardsmen, would grow to 80 or so) inside, where they would not be lost or too badly damaged. My favored opponent, Cousin Jim, collected only the metal Britain's men, with a few fancy Timpo painted plastics, coming from a family headed by an artistic and European father, whose company manufactured transparent cosmetic boxes perfect for holding tissue paper wrapped lead castings. Jim also collected SAE ARW 45mm During a normal visit, transporting collections back and forth was impossible, and we would play with the host's toys only. The main thing we lacked was a form of conflict resolution to determine when and who got killed during a fight. This was usually decided as the result of long persuasive filibuster! We also discovered that some history books disagreed with each other - how could that be? But the stage was set for a `my guys vs. yours' Duel To The Death. Just when we were becoming old enough to stop playing with toys, we planned the final Armageddon. Suddenly, at the eleventh hour, the odds were decisively stacked in my favor. On the way over to Jim's place, my Mom let me buy a cheap plastic blister pack of "100 Famous Planes of the World". Since we had decided on a basically WWII extravaganza, the jets were out, and the unarmed civilian craft would be no help. But there were plenty of combat aircraft! The resulting aerial ambush would now resemble the 1939 Polish Campaign! When I arrived, my unsuspecting cousin set out his many sets of pretty Britain's figures on one side of the floor, while I mobilized my dull green WWII legions. Outnumbered and outgunned on the ground, he resolutely faced me. It was then that I opened a previously unnoticed paper bag to reveal my new Air Fleet... We came over one plane at a time, strafing his single Dinky Toy anti-aircraft gun! Heaps of his men died serving as gunners. Finally, a yellow `Japanese Zero' dove out of the sun and kamakaze'd into it, destroying it once and for all! C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre! By the time my ground forces advanced he had little left to oppose them, so much of his force having been shot apart by my dozens of airplanes. Of course, squadrons of destroyed aircraft also littered the landscape, plunging and crashing spectacularly all over the field. But my main force remained intact. His lovely metal points of resistance now fell one by one: the giant Britain's WWI field gun, the Dinky Toy Centurion Tank, the Mountain Gun with its mule train. His WWI Ambulance Corps. Valiantly tried to cope with the casualties, as the WWI metal machine gunners fired away. These did some damage, until swamped by my Five and Ten Cent Store issue. Jim's army clearly deserved the Moral Victory, but he had lost. This subconsciously reinforced my idea that metal was for parading, and plastic for fighting! I was later to sell off my own metals to finance more plastics (or course). Jim's fine metal figures later found a happy home with Steve Balkan, one of the country's greatest authorities on metal toy soldiers here in NYC. You don't have to ask who got his plastics! 2. GAMING VS. PLAYING During high school and college in the late Sixties and early Seventies, I discovered war game books by such adult gaming masters as Wells, Morschauser, Tunstill, Grant and Featherstone. Alone, in my parent's basement, I now painted the figures with the new flat (as opposed to the older gloss) model paints first becoming available. For the first time I could actually game with figures, vehicles, and terrain. My first "table" was a Ping Pong table plus a plywood board held up at the far end by two old chairs no one seemed to miss. I also collected the 1/72 Airfix figure sets, especially World War I, not covered by Big Scale plastics. Back in those days, I learned about battles from movies, history books, and the old Avalon Hill board epics, literally then the only game in town. This line of development climaxed during my college seminar in London, when I gained access to the British product made Over There but not available in the States. I also modified book rules to make my own for the first time. Now a solo gamer, I was nevertheless fully armed with the tools of the gaming trade, and just waiting to be unleashed on an unsuspecting world!  Then disaster struck with the unforgiving weight of the continuous historical process experienced by all beings in the local time-space continuum! As I moved in the city to seek my fortune, my parents finally sold their house. Sadly, I triaged my 1/72 collection, even though new sets like Esci were first coming out. My heart was with the larger figures; mostly from old Marx play sets. They must be safely evacuated from this Dunquerque at all costs!!! So my path was laid down for me. Although interested in many periods, I would stick from now on to the single scale of 1/32 or 54mm. 3. JOINING THE HOBBY VS. SOLO GAMING In the Eighties, after my intense but small clique of playtesting board gamers broke up and role-playing fell out of fashion among folks my age, two important things happened. First, I became a customer/friend/part-time employee/fellow game to Jamie Delson, that paragon of dealers in the 54mm trade at The Toy Soldier Company. He introduced me to all the plastic hitherto unknown or unavailable to me. Second, I joined Metro Wargamers of Brooklyn, and discovered that other gamers like and would play my rules in my scale. Now dawned The Second Golden Age of Toy Soldiers (for a much fuller description of this amazing and once in a lifetime phenomenon see the first article in my index). New 54mm product was coming out almost too fast to keep up. Small companies of manufacturers and dealers were starting up and some were failing. For me, new periods were activated or reactivated. First came Medieval/Fantasy, ARW, and World War One (it once was lost but now was found upscaled). Later would come ECW, Napoleonic/1812, MAW, and Victorian Colonial (even SF). Today I have almost everything worth having, except for the new Ancients (I ran out of storage room). Another benefit of clubbing was my first attendance at wargame conventions including HMGS' Cold Wars and Historicon, Connecticut Gamer's Crusades, and finally, to me the most wonderful, Jodiecons. This put me in touch with a wider community of garners from up and down the East Coast. I began to speak out in favor of the Big Scale, and write in MWAN in hopes of helping us "real toy soldier" fans network. This was greatly facilitated by the appearance of the internet and littlewars@yahoogroups.com, the 54mm chat group. Diverse experiences? Oh yeah. I have functioned as Game Master, Assistant Quest Master, Table Judge, staff planner, and player, player, player. I've tried diplomacy, economic pressure, seduction, swift commando raid, and brute force. I've played at being everyone from skirmishing foot soldiers to airmen and admirals. I've been Interstellar villains with blue skin, spies, psychic detectives, and fantasy clerics, warriors, magic users, thieves, and more. Friends have watched me as Western gunfighters, and my very own 17th Century Dutch Sea Beggar, interacting with a great diversity of their characters. There have been roles as the many unknown unit commanders in all periods or more prominent ones like Confederate General Robert E. Rodes at Gettysburg (twice). Then there are of course all the famous historical side commanders from Packenharn and Patton to Robert E. Lee. My repertoire has included both Colonial Imperialists and African, Asian, or Muslim anti-European leaders around the globe. I have pushed infantry, cavalry, artillery, armor, paratroop, recon, combat engineers, resistance fighters and home guard. Played it straight and for laughs! Both Invader and Defender of the Sacred Soil. I've played comic book superheroes and heroines like Bruce Wayne and Big Barda, and a Star Trek type space doctor. Outrageous heroes like Sir Gareth of Orkney, Tara Bulba, Paul Atreides, John Carter, Theseus, The Man With No Name, Pavel Chekhov, and Hash Hassan (legendary founder of Guild of Assassins).Famous historical figures like Archimedes. Did I mention Theodore Roosevelt hunting dinosaurs? Finally, I impersonated Prince Kutuzov, commanding 50 real life garners at Borodino fighting 50 more as French. What a hobby! 4. BIG AND SMALL SCALES: ALL TOGETHER NOW "Newer and Bluer Meanies have been sighted in the vicinity of this theatre. There's only one way to go out - SINGING!" -- The Beatles, Yellow Submarine Can I improve my own gaming techniques by playing with the smaller scales and other peoples' rules systems? Sure! Can a smaller scale garner get ideas from what we are doing in 1:30? You bet! False opposition juxtaposed can lead to eventual synthesis and growth. This includes such "opposites" as: Skirmisher and battle gamer Board and miniatures garner Role player and "conventional"/historical hobbyist Actor, singer, writer, and gamer Historian and reenactor Fantasy, Sci-Fi, alternate historical and "pure" historical gamer Playtester and established systems gamer Mainstream religious gaming groups (so self proclaimed) and pagan players Younger and older player, be they male or female Single period gamer and generalist USA gamer and garner of other national origin Mellow dudes and rules lawyers Political rightist and leftist Military and non-military gamer ALL TOGETHER NOW! -Whew! Like, groovy, man! 5. KEEPING THE FAITH "What are your favorite periods? It depends on who your mates are, doesn't it?" -- Interview with Donald Featherstone The communal aspects of gaming are so great that it can be frustrating when those you are often simpatico with live far away in another state or country. Or when you want to hold a game and nobody can make the date. There are those intrepid solo garners who prefer to be off by themselves. Perhaps they have rich individual fantasy lives, or just abhor argu ments. But most of us like to draw others into our created universes and stories, even if only for a few hours, and act together to create a joint reality based on mutual interest and striving. One of the ways to encourage common play is to agree on the level of engagement you wish to experience. One person may only want a light game, another a long series of difficult decisions to make. One may enjoy role-playing the period with social humor, jokes or rebel yells; another only wants to concentrate on the pure gaming elements like a chess master. Can you design a scenario to make most everyone in your group happy`? That's entertainment! As I muse over again on Mr. Featherstone's simple remark down the years, it brings me to new levels of understanding about myself and others. How can I become The Featherstone Of The Fifty-Fours? To know myself, and be able to play some games solo and others with fun for all, is the ultimate gaming challenge. I can't expect everyone to be a success either - only to aim for a high average. Modern life tends to isolate us in many ways. Gaming to me is about sharing yourself and the interests you love with others. It's a good thing to keep in mind. ELSDEN INDEX: MWAN ISSUE 90 TO ISSUE 125 TF54s = Those Fightin' Fifty-Fours: Collecting and Gaming with 54mm Plastics (column) # 90 "Forward to the Past! Or The Second Golden Age of Toy Soldiers", Pg. 131 # 92 "Shards Part I" (Games: two game variant Alamo Campaign, Indian Mutiny, ACW Glorietta Pass, ACW Galveston Bay, ACW variant Fort Fucuppe, FL), Pg. 174 # 93 "Shards Park II" (Games: Zulu variant Port Durban, WWII Greece, WWII variant US Paradrop on Rome, WWII fantasy variant Glastonbury, England), Pg. 34; Letter, Pg. 172 #95 "Interview with the Rules Vampire", Pg. 159 # 96 "Battle Lines: A Buyer's Guide to Plastic 54mm Figures", Letter, Pg. 123 # 97 "Nitpicking Private Ryan and Other WWII Movie Trivia", Pg. 78 # 98 "Tactical Doctrine in the English Civil War: Missing in Action'?", Pg. 117 # 100 "Three Battlegrounds In China" (Games: WWII Terry and the Pirates, WWII Three Way Plus Fantasy, Boxer Rebellion), Pg. 55 # 101 Letter, Pg. 154 # 102 Letter, Pg. 183 # 103 Letter, Pg. 178 # 104 "CharleyCon I" (Game: WWII "A Canal Too Far"), Pg 66; TF54s ("Men of '76"), Pg. 72; Hal Thinglum Review of Elsden WWII rules, Pg. 131 # 105 TF54s ("54 - 40mm And Fight" 54mm 1812 games at Cold Wars 2000), Pg. 114 # 107 TF54s ("Freddy and the Pirates: Tai Ping Rebellion Game"), Pg. 47; "My Historicon 2000", Pg. 178 # 108 TF54s ("Boxing and Unboxing Boxers: The Paul Trapani Collection"), Pg. 61 # 110 TF54s ("Casa Del Carlos - Nicaragua Filibuster 1856 Game"), Pg. 166 # 111 TF54s ("Gaming Off the Table"), Pg. 55 # 112 TF54s ("New Product Update by Period"), Pg. 171 # 115 TF54s ("New Products - Jodiecon Borodino 02 - 9/11 # 116 Letter, Pg. 127 # 117 TF54s (PFPC Magazine ends publication, 54mm equipment, Napoleonic 54mm, rules series, my own rules sets), Pg. 140 # 119 TF54s ("Objections to 54mm and Answers, using civilians, new Napoleonic artillery sets, other things Napoleonic, upcoming April 2003 European battlefields tour), Pg. 57 # 121 TF54s ("Victorian Colonial products, Jodiecon Borodino 02, Carnage & Glory rules, upcoming European tour, product update, Ross McFarlane collection, the Toy Soldier approach, collection organization), Pg. 66; "The Role of Experimental History Theatre in Man's Quest for Existential Meaning or Why Wargaming is Good for You", Pg. 103 # 122 TF54s ("Great Toy Soldier Collections I Have Known"), Pg. 34 # 123 "Attack of the Giant Clicking Robots! A Primer on HeroClix and Mechwarrior", Pg. 28: "In Search Of: Psychic Gaming Phenomena or Tips on Improving Your Dice Luck", Pg. 52 #124 Letter Pg. 182 # 125 "Wargaming Your Way Across Europe 2003 - A Tour Commentary", Pg. 31  Back to MWAN # 128 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com